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Wrench at a Litespeed dealer?

Old 10-29-20, 10:46 AM
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John Valuk
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Wrench at a Litespeed dealer?

Does anyone here wrench at a Litespeed dealer? Or know someone who does?

Their "dealer finder" doesn't show anything near me, so I don't really have a "local" dealer.

I recently purchased a 2002 Litespeed Siena, and I'm interested in finding out about the availability of replacement head tube cups to work with the Cane Creek headset.

See this thread - Headset Issue - to understand the issue to which I am referring.
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Old 10-29-20, 11:34 AM
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why not just contact litespeed and see what cups are needed....then most shops should be able to order???
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Old 10-29-20, 12:00 PM
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I would bring it by any shop and have them use a good set of vernier/dial/digital calipers and measure and then order the correct headset. There is occasionally a bit of nonsense with headsets but usually most things can be found semi easily.
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Old 10-29-20, 12:07 PM
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That's an older bike, folks who worked on them BITD may be long gone. Better to ask Litespeed or have a shop measure, as suggested.
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Old 10-29-20, 01:13 PM
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I did reach out to Litespeed about this, too.

I posted here because there's a lot of expertise rattling around on these forums, and there's a chance of hitting the jackpot for a specific issue such as this one.
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Old 10-29-20, 02:23 PM
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This prolly doesn't do you any good, but I have a 2001 Litespeed Classic and still running the original King headset. But mine is not an integrated headset.

Good luck.
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Old 10-30-20, 03:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Bobsled
This prolly doesn't do you any good, but I have a 2001 Litespeed Classic and still running the original King headset. But mine is not an integrated headset..
I'm not sure when Literspeed first began their unfortunate trial of integrated headsets, apparently in 2002, but it was continued at least through 2004. I do know that their very first integrated headset frames tried to use both Campy (45ºx45º bearings) and Cane Creek (36ºx45º bearings) and neither worked properly. Later they machined the seats to use only Cane Creek bearing cartridges. You might be able to get the specifications from Cane Creek.

By 2005 they returned to press-in cup headsets as on my 2005 Firenza and 2006 Tuscany. I'm glad they did!
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Old 10-30-20, 04:18 PM
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Originally Posted by HillRider
I'm not sure when Literspeed first began their unfortunate trial of integrated headsets, apparently in 2002, but it was continued at least through 2004. I do know that their very first integrated headset frames tried to use both Campy (45ºx45º bearings) and Cane Creek (36ºx45º bearings) and neither worked properly. Later they machined the seats to use only Cane Creek bearing cartridges. You might be able to get the specifications from Cane Creek.

By 2005 they returned to press-in cup headsets as on my 2005 Firenza and 2006 Tuscany. I'm glad they did!
Do you know if it varied by frame model or was that across the board (integrated vs. external)?
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Old 10-30-20, 05:41 PM
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I couldn't find a 2002 catalog but it appears from what I could find that some 2002 model frames used integrated headsets and some used press-in cup headsets. I did find a 2004 catalog and all road frames used Cane Creek integrated headsets. Again, I couldn't find a 2005 catalog but it seems by then some models still used integrated and some (like my Firenze) used press-in cups. By 2006 the integrated headset only survived in a couple of Tri/TT frames.
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Old 10-30-20, 06:43 PM
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Originally Posted by HillRider
I do know that their very first integrated headset frames tried to use both Campy (45ºx45º bearings) and Cane Creek (36ºx45º bearings) and neither worked properly.
I have read a number of posts on-line describing it that way. I can personally confirm (because I just looked at mine yesterday) that the detail machined into the cups is not correct for the Cane Creek setup that was used. It's simply the wrong diameter (~0.8 mm too large) for the bearing assembly.

I have seen at least one report from someone who claimed that they had the Campy setup on one of these bikes, and had no problems with it. From what I measure on mine, I could believe that; the diameter looks correct for that type of bearing. Sadly, the 45-degree surface is somewhat chewed up on mine from the bearing assembly moving around in there.

Someone at Litespeed told me that they would look into this for me, so I'll see where that goes.
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Old 10-30-20, 06:47 PM
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Originally Posted by HillRider
I couldn't find a 2002 catalog but it appears from what I could find that some 2002 model frames used integrated headsets and some used press-in cup headsets.
You can use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to look at some 2002 snapshots of the Litespeed web site - including an on-line presentation of their catalog content.
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Old 10-30-20, 09:27 PM
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Originally Posted by John Valuk
You can use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to look at some 2002 snapshots of the Litespeed web site - including an on-line presentation of their catalog content.
I did a Google search for the '02, '03, '04,'05 and '06 catalogs and found a complete '04 and '06 but only fragmentary pictures of other year's bikes. Do you have another source?
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Old 10-30-20, 09:53 PM
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Originally Posted by HillRider
I did a Google search for the '02, '03, '04,'05 and '06 catalogs and found a complete '04 and '06 but only fragmentary pictures of other year's bikes. Do you have another source?
Go to archive.org, and they have a place where you can type in a web address (e.g., litespeed.com). If they have information archived for that web site, you'll be able to see by year/month/day when snapshots were taken. Click on a snapshot, and you can start browsing the website content that was archived at that time.
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Old 10-31-20, 07:00 AM
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Originally Posted by HillRider
I couldn't find a 2002 catalog but it appears from what I could find that some 2002 model frames used integrated headsets and some used press-in cup headsets.
My 2002 Firenze came with and still enjoys a Chris King conventional:
Crown Race: 30
S.H.I.S Lower: EC34
Lower Stack Height: 14.2mm
Upper Stack Height: 17.7mm
S.H.I.S Upper: EC34
S.H.I.S. Stem Clamp Diameter: 28.6mm
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Old 10-31-20, 05:44 PM
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Originally Posted by easyupbug
My 2002 Firenze came with and still enjoys a Chris King conventional:
Crown Race: 30
S.H.I.S Lower: EC34
Lower Stack Height: 14.2mm
Upper Stack Height: 17.7mm
S.H.I.S Upper: EC34
S.H.I.S. Stem Clamp Diameter: 28.6mm
As I mentioned above, in 2002 some Litespeeds continued to use conventional headsets and some had gone to integrated. The Firenza was their "entry level" frame and used a conventional headset. My '05 Firenza also uses a conventional headset, in its case now a Velo Orange Gran Cru. Not quite a Chris King but very good and a lot less costly.

Last edited by HillRider; 10-31-20 at 05:49 PM.
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